MUGEN

2014.8.28

TEAM MUGEN scored no point while it had prospect!

Series name: 2014 Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Round 4
Event: 2014 Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Round 4 Motegi 2 & 4 Race
Course: 4.801km × 52 laps (249.652km)
Qualifying: 2014-08-23 Sat / Cloudy / Attendance 10,000 (Announcement from the organizer)
Race: 2014-08-24 Sun / Cloudy, and rain later / Attendance 16,000 (Announcement from the organizer)

Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Round 4 was held at Twin Ring Motegi in Tochigi Prefecture. TEAM MUGEN entered the race with the two cars driven by #1 Yamamoto and #2 Nakayama. It was the first time for the new-model cars, SF14, to enter a race at Twin Ring Motegi. Since mounting engines of the new specification in the race was allowed by the race regulations, TEAM MUGEN equipped the two cars with Honda HR-414E engine of the new specification.

JRP, a race organizer, announced their determination to reduce fuel flow from a viewpoint of braking load relief and to change fuel restrictor specification from 100 kg/h, which had been applied until Round 3, to 90 kg/h claiming that braking load could be very high at Twin Ring Motegi for reasons of track layout. In addition, to promote brake cooling, they are equipped with brake ducts with an expanded opening.

August 23rd, (Sat)

■  Qualifying
#1 Naoki Yamamoto Q1: - , Q2: - , Q3: -
#2 Yuhki Nakayama Q1: - , Q2: - , Q3: -
* Times for the qualifying are deleted because of violation of 2014 JAF SUPER FORMULA Sporting Regulations (Chapter 13, Article 4.3.1 and 4.4.1).

A knockout-based qualifying format with three sessions was adopted for the qualifying. The top 14 out of all drivers in Q1 will run Q2, and for the rest, the starting grid will be determined based on their results in Q1. The top 8 in Q2 will run Q3, and the starting grid will be determined for drivers who come in the 9th through 13th positions based on their results. Eventually, the starting grid for the top 8 drivers will be determined based on their results in Q3 as per usual SUPER FORMULA rules.

Q1 started at 13:15 under dry condition. The temperature was 32°C, and the track surface temperature was 48°C. Yamamoto (#1) simulated a time attack in the early stage, and recorded 00:01:34.220 on the lap 3. Nakayama (#2) recorded 00:01:35.100 on the lap 4 before he came back to the pit garage. At that point, Yamamoto (#1) was in 9th position, and Nakayama (#2) was in 18th position.

Drivers started making time attacks aggressively when there were six minutes left for the session. On the lap 7, Yamamoto (#1) moved up to the top recording 00:01:32.688, which was the course record at Twin Ring Motegi at that point. With this time, Yamamoto (#1) made it to Q2. Nakayama (#2) ended up recording 00:01:35.020 on the lap 8, and did not make it to Q2.

Yamamoto (#1) stayed in the pit garage when the track was opened at 14:10 for Q3, and he entered the track as a final batch of drivers. He was in 2nd position by recording 00:01:33.450 on the lap 2. Though he tried to make a time attack, the car slowed down on the way, and he came back to the pit garage without measuring the time. He made this decision to be on the safe side since a camber shim in the front suspension fell off and this adversely affected the controllability. As a result, Yamamoto (#1) finished 8th in the qualifying.

After the completion of the qualifying, our two cars were judged to have violated 2014 JAF SUPER FORMULA Sporting Regulations (Chapter 13, Article 4.3.1 and 4.4.1), and deletion of times for the qualifying was imposed. During the interval between qualifying sessions, we used dry ice to fan GCUs and engines to cool them down since they could have thermal damage. However, we did not check if the dry ice was removed or not when the cars went back on the track, and they drove the cars with the dry ice in them.

TEAM MUGEN accepted the judgment with sincerity, and established our intention again to prevent recurrence. For the final race, Yamamoto (#1) was on the second grid from the last, and Nakayama (#2) was on the last grid.

August 24th, (Sun)

■   Final Race
#1 Naoki Yamamoto 15th position (51 laps 01:36:27.018 / Best lap 00:01:35.251)
#2 Yuhki Nakayama 12th position (52 laps 01:36:38.200 / Best lap 00:01:35.913)

The weather was getting worse in the region, and it was overcast when the final race started at 15:00. Since one car could not join the track and had to start from a pit lane, Yamamoto (#1) was in 17th position and Nakayama (#2) was in 18th position when the race started.

Immediately after the start, both Yamamoto (#1) and Nakayama (#2) aggressively chased cars ahead to move up. Yamamoto (#1) moved up to the 15th on the lap 3, and managed to move up more. However, on the lap 10, a drive-through penalty was imposed on Yamamoto (#1). Since a car started from a pit lane, this confused him and he took a wrong grid position to start.

After the drive-through penalty, Yamamoto (#1) was in 17th position with 42 seconds off the leading car's time. Yamamoto (#1) increased the pace, and recorded the fastest lap time on the lap 13. Since some cars made pit stops for tire changes earlier, on the lap 14, Nakayama (#2) was in 9th position with 33.806 seconds off the leading car's time, and Yamamoto (#1) was in 10th position with 42.270 seconds off the leading car's time. Yamamoto (#1) broke his fastest lap time record on the lap 16 to move up further.

On the lap 18, Yamamoto (#1) made a pit stop. Though he intended to make it a brief stop for tire changes and refueling, the engine stall occurred when he tried to come back on the track. He had to restart the engine using a starter, and this forced us considerable time loss.

Though Yamamoto (#1) moved down to the 17th position, he never gave up and recorded 00:01:35.647, which broke his personal best lap time, on the lap 22. At that point, Nakayama (#2) was in 8th position. Yamamoto (#1) drove faster than a driver of the leading car, which was ahead of the pack, to move up.

At the completion of the lap 30, Nakayama (#2) made a pit stop for refueling and tire changes. He was in the apparent position of 4th since he delayed making a pit stop. On the lap 32, Yamamoto (#1) was in 16th position, and Nakayama (#2) was in 14th position.

On the lap 34, it was starting to rain lightly but not so much as to get the track surface wet. Yamamoto (#1) made a pit stop when he completed the lap 37 for the second refueling and tire changes. Though few teams carried out a two-stop strategy, with which you reduce vehicle body weight to increase the pace, in this race, we dared to adopt the two-stop strategy since Yamamoto (#1) had to start from the last grid due to the penalty. However, the engine stall occurred again when he came back on the track, and the strategy worked negatively causing time loss.

The rain got heavier suddenly, and it was raining cats and dogs when a lead vehicle was on its 40th lap. It was impossible to keep on competing using slick tires under this condition. Most drivers including Yamamoto (#1) and Nakayama (#2) made unexpected pit stops for tire changes. When the confused state was over, Nakayama (#2) was in 12th position and Yamamoto (#1) was in 15th position.

On the lap 46, a safety car (SC) joined the track to be in the lead because of the bad condition. No overtaking was allowed, and we had to wait for improvement of the condition. However, there was no recovery of condition, and the checkered flag was waved when the safety car run completed the lap 52.

In this race, Yamamoto (#1) and Nakayama (#2) could not score a championship point. Right now, cumulative point is six for both Yamamoto (#1) and TEAM MUGEN. Yamamoto (#1) is ranked 10th, and TEAM MUGEN is ranked 6th.

■ Comments from the team director, Nagataka Tezuka

We were in a very good condition for both the cars and engines in terms of settings, but could not perform well because of various troubles we had this weekend. I feel very sorry for people who cooperated with us and cheered for us about that. We would like to review all the troubles including those happened during the race to prepare for the next race.

♦ Photo Gallery (Round4)